Molina, who works for Euromericas Sport Marketing, has written a report on the market value of the attacker, and has revealed that there is a club willing to pay an astonishing fee for the Argentine forward.

“There is a club that is practically sponsored by a government that would be prepared to pay €400m for Leo Messi,” he told Cadena SER.

“There are three European clubs that asked us to come up with this study in order to find out how much Messi was worth.

“We cannot say who the clubs are. The clubs wanted to analyse the viability of a possible transfer for Messi.

“Messi is five times more marketable than Cristiano Ronaldo. According to studies, Ronaldo is worth between €150-160m.

“Messi’s buy-out clause is €250m, we believe that figure is obsolete and devalued. Right now there is no player in the world of sport that has a greater value than Leo Messi. According to market research in the last five years, Messi is worth €400m.”

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